The season is review

[Lesli]

Hi all,
I'm wrapping up my beekeeping season here in Upstate NY. I started with 2 4-frame nucs, went through supersedure, the death of an experimental nuc, swarming, robbing, and eventually, swarming in late September. After all this, I have two mediums of comb honey and one hive--after the late swarm, I had to combine the two hives.

All in all, I have to say that it has been a pretty exciting season with a lot of lessons learned.

Pretty soon, I'll start feeding the girls (once the two hives are properly combined).

For details on the seson and some good pics, go to beeyard.blogspot.com --I've been keeping my own journal so that in future years, I'll have something to look back on.

The site allows you to make comments, and I'd be glad if people would--any advice or general comments appreciated!

[TJ]

Congrats on making it through your first year with live bees. Better than my first. I wrote something on your blog, I hope it worked. Never blogged before. Find an extractor for your honey, don't crush any comb to get the honey. The late Richard Taylor, a long time beekeeper, says drawn comb is the MOST valuable item a beekeeper has. The Queen can lay eggs faster and workers can forage faster than they can build comb, so it is a limiting factor. Good luck next year.

[buzz]

I'm sorry to hear that you only ended up with one hive, but it's better to have one strong hive than two weak ones going into winter. You can always split next year.

[Lesli]

Thanks, all. TJ, I'll get an extractor next year, but this year, I did comb honey. I'll cut much of it up, but thought I'd crush a bit for liquid honey.

I'll have extra drawn comb because of the hive I combined, so spring build up should be pretty quick. In fact, I'm going to contact the bee club and see who wants packages for next year--I know I'll want three, at a minimum. My plans for next year are not only to increase the number of hives, but raise a few queens. I think having a few on hand is a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Wel at least you made it through all of that with some of the good stuff. Any time you make it through your first year with a bit of the physical rewards you done good.
All you have to do now is apply some of your learned knowledge to next year and I'm sure you will be surprised at how quickly and easily you will be able to expand your apiary to more than exceed your expectations.
Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

[TJ]

Sounds like you have it all figured out Lesli. I still feel loathe to destroy any comb. I asked Mike from our club where I could borrow an extractor this year. If the club doesn't already have one, I'm going to suggest we get one. That's one reason I joined a club.

[michael l burnett]

hi leslie.... we also harvested without an extractor.
we hated to loose the comb , but many old time honey tasters said they love the flavor of our honey...that it had the flavor of the comb.
   hard tellin' not knowin', but maybe we can get more $ for it .
     anybody else heard anything about  different flavors in honey due to extraction methods?........cold brookie in vermont.